Indigenous Peoples Day: 4 Things to Know

Christopher Columbus’s journal entry about the indigenous people he encountered on October 11, 1492 — the day he stumbled upon present-day Haiti — reads like an elegant preface to genocide.

“They should be good servants and intelligent, for I observed that they quickly took in what was said to them,” noted Columbus. “[A]nd I believe that they would easily be made Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no religion.” That day alone, Columbus decided to take six natives as slaves. What followed was a total annihilation marked by thievery, rape, enslavement, and the brutal deaths of indigenous peoples.

Nevertheless, Columbus, who never set foot in the present-day United States, has been honored with his own federal holiday here for more than 80 years. But an increasing number of jurisdictions are aiming to stop honoring a brutal colonizer and start celebrating the peoples on whose lands we live today. Los Angeles made big waves August 30 when its city council voted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. It was the biggest city to make the change so far — and the third to do so in the month of August. In September, Sante Fe, New Mexico, and Davenport, Iowa, did the same.

So far, more than 70 cities, colleges, and states now recognize Indigenous Peoples Day, as you can see here.

Columbus’s crimes have been well understood by some people for quite a long time. So what’s behind the seemingly sudden desire on the part of so many cities to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day? And where are people organizing to replace the holiday next? Here’s what you need to know:

Words matter, so get the name right.

Before Columbus’s arrival and subsequent European colonization, there were thousands of nations in what we now call the Americas. These nations were different from one another, with distinct languages, customs, and territories. A lot of these nations survived genocide: In the U.S. alone, we can easily recognize Hopi people, Chickasaw people, and Shinnecock people as distinct peoples today.

For too long, indigenous peoples have been collapsed into one singular people. Indigenous Peoples Day, with that s at the end, acknowledges the fact that this is a celebration for and about many different nations. Avoid spelling it Indigenous People’s Day, since that apostrophe denotes a singular people and signals that we can’t see the different nations we want to celebrate. (Oh, and you can go with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, as some jurisdictions have — that designates the plural notion of nations, too.)

It’s a denouncement of racist violence, which comes in many modern forms.

While racist violence remains a real threat, there needs to be a real practice to combat white supremacy, including through its signature statues and holidays.

In Detroit, Michigan, where someone took a hatchet covered in fake blood to a Columbus statue in 2015, the Raiz Up collective is working to bring down that statue, end Columbus Day, and replace it with Indigenous and African Peoples Day. “We want to make it relevant to Detroit, which is the blackest city in the country,” Antonio Cosme, who works with Raiz Up, tells Teen Vogue. He points out that Detroit is still facing challenges — and says the wins, among so many losses, are few. “The one thing that we can control is who we respect and honor in public space,” he says. The group is hoping to get signatures to replace the statue and is shepherding a resolution through the city council to replace the holiday.

Recognize that these name changes didn’t happen overnight — they've been happening for decades.

In 1989, South Dakota became the first state to replace Columbus Day, which is observed the second Monday in October, with Native American Day. Berkeley, California, was the first city to change the holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day, in 1992. Two states, Vermont and Alaska, have replaced the holiday more recently. There have been years of hard work lead by indigenous peoples behind all of those efforts.

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“We stand on the shoulders of activists that have been working on this for decades,” Chrissie Castro, who works with the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, tells Teen Vogue. Castro has worked to get the city council to replace the day for the past two years and points out that the American Indian Movement challenged Columbus Day in the 1970s. That’s around the time the United Nations focused more on discrimination against indigenous peoples from South and North America; participants at an international conference pushed for the U.N. to recognize October 12 as International Day of Solidarity and Mourning with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.

Castro herself got involved more than 20 years ago when she was a college student. For decades, college campuses have been a prime venue for organizing against Columbus Day.

Keep an eye on these cities, where the change could come soon.

Los Angeles, where the change has already taken place, is the second-biggest city in the U.S. Chicago is the third, and an Illinois Democratic candidate for governor says he’s keen on replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day and would work to get it done if elected.

Another city to keep an eye on is Boston. Mahtowin Munro, who works with United American Indians of New England, tells Teen Vogue that there’s very little consciousness of indigenous peoples in cities in the Northeast compared with other big cities that have replaced the holiday. Nevertheless, Munro says she and others worked to change that at Tufts University, as well as in the city of Cambridge.

Kisha James is a freshman at Wellesley College. While she’s adjusting to a new schedule, new people, and new classes, she’s also working hard to start a Native student group on campus, as well as pushing the school to change the holiday. Kisha, who grew up in Boston and helped craft the resolution in Cambridge, is excited about the prospect of her city recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day. “It really helps raise the nation’s consciousness,” she tells Teen Vogue.